The warrants were served after the Cherng Talay OrBorTor petitioned the court late last month, Mr MaAnn told The Phuket News.
Mr MaAnn confirmed that arrest warrants were issued for three people, but he only spoke of two people who he named only as Mr Akkarachai and Mr Leechua. Both had ignored all official notices to vacate the land they were illegally occupying, despite the Supreme Court ruling last year that the land they were on belonged to the state.
“For case involving Mr Akkarachai, the court on July 22 asked him to pay B400,000 or B600,000, I’m not sure. The prosecutor had filed a request to deny bail,” Mr MaAnn said in a hurried conversation.
“As for Mr Leechua, the court has postponed his court date,” he said.
Mr MaAnn today met with officers from the Legal Execution Department (LED) to discuss whether workers can enter the properties and demolish any structures still standing.
“We need to look into this as the court has postponed one of the trial dates,” he said.
The results of the meeting with the LED officials have yet to become known.
“We need to be very careful. Even though we have a good intention to get the land back, when someone files a lawsuit and the court accepts the lawsuit, everyone is afraid because we need to pay bail ourselves,” Mr MaAnn said.
“Officers at a previous meeting told me to wait until all the legal processes have been completed, and I told them that I do not have any problems doing it that way, but I asked them whether that would take a long time,” he said.
“Other people want me to wait because they are not locals born here, but I am. I want to clear the land for my local people. As a politician, I hope I can make a great benefit for my people,” he added.
“I want to do so, but I cannot do it alone, as things are beyond my authority. I need to follow the orders of higher officials,” Mr MaAnn said.
“For my part, I have already contacted a company to demolish the structures on the land. I am just waiting for other officials to be ready, so we can demolish the structures on the land and get our land back,” he said.
Mr MaAnn noted that recent developments in the rising number of COVID cases on the island had disrupted the efforts to reclaim the land.
“Last week, we planned to go to examine the land again, but we did not because there was an outbreak of COVID-19 infections in Cherng Talay, and the OrBorTor office needed to be closed for two weeks,” he said.